The Firework singer shared a picture which showed Kali, the Hindu goddess of time, creation, and destruction, with her tongue out and stepping on the chest of her male counterpart Shiva on Wednesday and wrote in the caption, "current mood."

Just one day later, it had attracted more than 12,000 comments, most of which came from angry Indian fans. Although some hit out at the musician, others tried to explain the image's significance in Hindu religious iconography in the hope she would remove the image and apologize.

A user posting under the name sajrita.abbie wrote, "The female Godess (sic) is Mata (mother) KALI and the male God is Lord Shiva and according to the mythology Mata KALI was very angry and she was destroying whatever came in her way so Lord Shiva was worried if she continued like this the world would come to an end. Therefore to stop her he lied down on the ground and when she put her leg on his chest."

After explaining that the goddess was in pain having disrespected Shiva, the user added, "So how should I put in words that you understand the real meaning behind this picture. Well you are free to do whatever you like but as we all love and respect you I request you ma'am to please understand your Indians fans sentiments are getting disrespected and take this picture down."

Others were less understanding, with much of the outrage focusing on her caption and her taking the image, which is commonly used on calendars in India, out of context.